It's a touchy topic for both Pennsylvania senators, for very different reasons.
The high-stakes battle over the filibuster is becoming something of a minefield for Pennsylvania's two Republican
U.S. senators.
Democrats are hoping to exploit Sen. Rick Santorum's advocacy for eliminating the filibuster against judicial
nominees when he comes up for re-election next year.
And conservative groups are losing patience with Sen. Arlen Specter for failing to commit to doing away
with the filibuster option.
Political observers say it's too early to predict how the issue would play in Santorum's race or whether
Specter's chairmanship would be in jeopardy if he votes to preserve the filibuster.
But both senators are clearly under the microscope as the Senate inches closer to a constitutional showdown
Tuesday.
That's the day that Majority Leader Bill Frist intends to call for a vote on Priscilla Owen, a nominee for
the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. If Democrats block the vote, Frist says he'll use an arcane parliamentary maneuver to establish
a precedent banning filibusters of nominees.
The maneuver requires support of at least 50 senators, assuming that Vice President Dick Cheney is on hand
to break the tie.
Santorum ... has been out front in pushing for the ban, which he calls the ''constitutional option,''
arguing it would restore the Senate's ability to give ''advice and consent'' on judicial nominees.
Opponents, who call it the ''nuclear option,'' say the maneuver would destroy what's left of the comity
the Senate depends on to accomplish much of its work.
In November 2003, Santorum organized a 30-hour anti-filibuster ''talkathon'' to draw attention to Democratic
filibuster against 10 of President Bush's circuit court nominees, including Owen.
Santorum acknowledges that Senate rules permit such filibusters but argues that they've never been used
in an organized way to keep the majority party from bringing nominees up for a vote...
''We must stop this,'' Santorum said on the Senate floor Thursday. ''We must have up-or-down votes.''
Democrats have pointed out that Santorum used other Senate procedures to block some Clinton nominees —
including Robert Freedberg of Northampton County — from even getting a confirmation hearing.
Santorum said the blocks were justified because Clinton didn't honor an agreement to nominate a candidate
he favored for the bench in western Pennsylvania. He also argues that individual senators have always had the right to block
lower court nominees in their states, which he says is fundamentally different from filibustering Circuit Court nominees,
whose jurisdictions cover several states.
Democrats were quick to jump on Santorum on Thursday when he referred to Adolf Hitler in his floor speech
on the filibuster issue. Santorum, who earlier chastised Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., for a similar reference, later said he
''meant no offense.'' The Anti-Defamation League, which condemned Byrd's remarks, said Friday that Santorum's comments were
''inappropriate and insensitive.''
Jay Reiff, campaign manager for state Treasurer Bob Casey Jr., who is seeking the Democratic Senate nomination,
said Santorum's eagerness to eliminate the filibuster shows he's more interested in partisan victories than serving Pennsylvania
voters.
'
'Bob Casey is on record that the U.S. Senate is one of the last places left in Washington where Republicans
and Democrats work together,'' Reiff said. ''Voters don't see how more partisanship helps anything.''
But John Brabender, Santorum's media consultant, said ... Casey also risks support of conservative Democrats
who oppose abortion rights because several of the judges being filibustered are abortion foes.
''This fight is not about abortion,'' Reiff said. ''It's a fight about whether one party turns the Senate
into a rubber stamp'' for the president's nominees.
Polls show that few people are paying close attention to the debate. But that could change depending on
the outcome of Tuesday's showdown.
''It's a question of whether we wind up with deadlocked government,'' said G. Terry Madonna, director of
the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall University.
Madonna said Democrats have ''marginally gained'' support on the issue by arguing that Republicans are running
roughshod over minority rights. ''But I don't think anyone has a clue what the ramifications would be of shutting down the
government,'' he said.
Specter is taking heat for a different reason.
By remaining uncommitted, the Republican moderate says he's in a better position to broker a deal to avert
a constitutional showdown. But absent a compromise, Specter could supply one of the six Republican votes the Democrats need
to uphold the filibuster.
Not surprisingly, interest groups on both sides are chiming in.
The liberal People for the American Way began running ads in Pennsylvania urging Specter to uphold the filibuster.
Now the leaders of several social conservative groups are applying counter pressure...
Many of these same groups fought to keep Specter from becoming chairman after he said the Supreme Court
was unlikely to overturn the abortion rights precedent in Roe v. Wade.
In his fight to win the gavel, Specter promised to move Bush's nominees through the committee regardless
of their abortion beliefs. He also stated there was precedent for the Senate to outlaw filibusters with a simple majority
vote.
But Specter never promised to support ending filibusters, a position he reiterated to The New York Times
last week.
On the Senate floor, Specter has argued against the filibuster. But he's also said that banning it would
have grave consequences for the Senate and the nation.
LaRue said her group [Concerned Women of America] might renew its objections to Specter's chairmanship
if he votes to protect the filibuster. But others on the right say it's too late to take that step.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican on Judiciary, said he hopes Specter will vote with Republican leaders
when the time comes but doesn't think it's right to threaten his chairmanship.
''Everyone understands that we'll work together after this [fight] just like we did before,'' Cornyn said.
Santorum — who as a freshman senator argued that another Republican should be stripped of a chairmanship
for failing to back the party on a crucial vote — doesn't believe it would be appropriate, either.
''I'm not too sure that party discipline would be an effective response to any member's vote on this,''
Santorum said.
